The day was warm and bright, a strong sun beaming down. People of all ages were outside enjoying the sun, even if they didn’t want to be.
The order had gone out two days out ago. The bleak winter would be halted for one day, a day of sunshine created. Every living human had been ordered to be outside and be enjoying it.
Today was the wedding of the King and his Princess. No king should be wed in the cold. Magic and science had bee fused together to break the spell of the eternal winter, if only for a day.
The story was all a lie. So much of it was all a lie. Veronica wished she knew none of it. She had been happy in the lie. The truth only depressed her, as it would anyone.
She was not outside. If everyone in the world had been ordered outside, you could be damn sure whatever was happening was happening inside.
Inside was normally full of people, a metal wasteland ringing with the troublesome sounds of entombed life. Now it was empty, a metal shell ringing with the sounds of nothing. She can’t believe it had taken her so long to realise just how quiet it was. It was not just quiet, it was silent.
The machines were not running.
She ran as quickly as she could while still remaining silent. She stuck to the service tunnels out of habit and comfort. If the machines were not running then she needed to be in the power core.
The power core was a fairly large thing, at least she knew the room surrounding it was. She had never been inside. Of all the guarded rooms the power core was the only one she had not managed to find a way into. Today the door was just swinging on its hinges.
She moved in silently, sure she could find a place to hide. The room was large, and empty. Six people stood in the middle of the room, and two of them looked at her as she walked in. She went to leave but the door swung shut. She was caught.
She would not be taken without a fight. She readied herself without making any sudden moves. Her pistols were ready to go, her wrist blades ready to spring should she need them. She could take them all down, then worry about how to get out.
One of the men looking towards her raised a hand, and her mind went blank. His voice spoke, coming as if from right next to her.
“Calm now, Veronica, we had been waiting for you.” He spoke.
She knew this power, it was the power of the dream, the power that fuelled the fake reality. She did not struggle against it for she knew there was no need. It could not claim her now. Her freedom from it had been hard fought, but it was a lasting victory.
“We just want to talk.” He spoke again.
She walked forward, partly because she wanted to and partly because he wanted her to. Her anger flared, just enough to force the man from her mind. He let his hand down, simply nodding the point to her. Her next step forward was purely her own.
The six were a who’s who of society. The man who had calmed her was High Magus Victor, high lord of the seven school of magic users. Next to him was Lucious, eternal bodyguard to the High Magus. He was a nasty bugger. She had crossed paths with him many times.
As she approached the other four turned to look. High Tinkerer Lucy was the first, a squat woman with a contest level of grime stuck to her face. Next to her was Chief Enforcer Lewis, a man of no remarkable physical appearance. Next to him was Cyborg Alpha, leader of all cyborg and robotic people who shared this tomb with the living. Finally there was Lady, known also as Her. If she was here, the news must be grave indeed.
“This my fellows is Veronica, the one who freed herself from the dream and has been causing us issues ever since.” Victor said.
“And why have we been waiting for her?” Lewis said.
It was a good question, and one she would have asked herself had she known they had been waiting. Her level of unease was rising, as was the fact she knew she was going to be asked to do something for these bastards.
“Few of us have ever stepped foot in this room before, and since the day construction was finished to today none ever have. What was different then is the same as now. This room is empty. It should not be.” Victor said.
Only Lucy looked worried so far. In her short time being free of the dream, she had come to respect the tinkerer. This was going to be a bad day.
“In this room a storm should be rampaging. A storm of such immense and pure power that should any living thing even glance upon it they would turn to dust. This room was built to contain that storm, and furthermore harness just the small amount we could handle to power this whole city.
“Four days ago everything was fine. Then the storm was gone. Batteries have been keeping the city going, but they will soon expire. In short this city is dying, and should she fall, all within her fall also.”
She knew Victor’s words to be true. Her sense of truth had been key to her finding her way out of the dream. She didn’t care. The world of this city would end, millions of lives snuffed out, and she didn’t care.
“Well just get your collective of magicians, wizards and mages to start a new storm!” Lewis said.
If that was possible it would have already been done. Victor was not one to share secrets if he did not have to. The man was desperate. His external composure was solid, but Veronica could see through that. The High Magus was panicked.
“Not even the combined power of all magic users giving their all could restart the storm this chamber housed. The power once contained in this room was the energy of a dying Avatar. We could never hope to replicate that.” Victor said.
Avatar? It was a new word to her, but the sucking in of breath of the others made it clear it was something big. The fact the combined might of all magic users couldn’t match it meant it was powerful. Why was it she was suddenly so sure they were going to ask her to hunt one down?
“Why try and restart it. You said yourself that the city barley tapped into the power to run. Why not build a much smaller power source, one the magicians could run?” Alpha said.
“We have been trying to do that for years. The power is there but it does not keep. Once cast it fades, and the distance covered before it is gone is feet and we need miles.” Lucy said.
Interesting. Next time sometime tried to cast a spell on her she would just try and outrun it!
“Any solution that requires no magic at all?” Veronica said.
She knew it was a taboo question. Magic was the key to everything, but she knew the lie in that. There were ways to accomplish what magic did without magic, and she knew Lucy would be working on them.
“None that we could get working in time.” Lucy said.
That was not a no. Another interesting thing to remember.
“Our best bet is to try and re-acquire the power we have lost. We know it did not get free for the city would lie in ruins if it had. Someone or something must have found a way of storing it and then decided to take it. I can assure you that this could not have been done for any good reason.” Victor said.
His composure was fraying a little, his voice rising in pitch just a little. It made her smile. Maybe the great Magus was human underneath it all, not the cold ice man she had often envisaged.
“Fine, I will get my men on it. What are we looking for?” Lewis said.
Victor shook his head. He didn’t know.
“We don’t know. This room was the smallest we could design to contain the power, yet clearly whoever took it has housed it in something much smaller.” Lucy said.
“Must it exist as one?” Lady said.
Her voice sent shivers down Veronica’s spine. So cold, so dead. Still, it was a good question and one Lucy had clearly not asked herself.
It was amazing to watch the tinkerer’s brain at work. Her mouth moved but no words fell out, her eyes darted around as if looking at information floating before them. She tapped fingers to thumb in patterns so complex and fast it made Veronica’s head hurt. In seconds she nodded.
“No, it could be split. In essence there are four parts of the power, each one fairly neutral on its own. If you split them and stored them separately you are not containing the raw power just the small building blocks of it. Even so each container would need to around six feet tall, magically sealed and kept a large distance from the others.”
“Kept away from each other, why?” Victor said.
“The four pieces don’t want to be split and will try and reform. A small cage could contain them for a short time if they were near but the pieces would soon break free. Distance would hamper that, but not forever. Not knowing the materials or spells used to seal them I can’t say how long, but I would guess even with the containers spread as far apart as they city would allow we are talking days before the pieces rip free.”
“And that is if they are even separated.” Lady said.
“The timeline of days is true in any case. This city will run out of power in four days. Lucy and I will do our best to make it last longer, but I would guess we could add hours not days.” Victor said.
“Then it is sorted. I will send my men to every crevice of this city to look for any suspicious looking containers and I will alert you immediately should we find any.” Lewis said.
Alpha nodded along, adding he would send scannerbots to help in the search. The two of them walked away, the crisis clearly solved for them.
“What are your thoughts Veronica?” Victor said.
“Don’t just want to steal them?”
“Who could have taken it?”
“I am assuming to take it I must be in here, or at the very least the door open?”
“Yet you said just looking at it would turn a living thing to dust. Would a cyborg suffer the same fate?”
“Yes, they are part living and live in symbiosis, one cannot exist without the other.” Lucy said.
“What about robots? They are not living. Could they take it?”
Veronica looked at Lady and her next question stuck in her throat. The dead one smiled.
“She wants to know if one of my kind could have taken it.” Lady said.
“So two possible suspect pools? I will look into them both.” Victor said.
“Nothing is that simple. If something can be made to contain it could a suit be made to protect you from the power, even for a short time?”
If you wanted to find the truth you needed a trail to follow. Stomping around the city looking for something that may not even exist was a waste of time. Looking for suspects only narrowed down by ‘not alive’ was similarly just as stupid. No, to find the truth you needed somewhere to start, something known on which to build.
She may not care about the people, but she did care about the truth, the puzzle.
“Lucy, talk to me about that door.”
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